Wade sinks game-winner as Heat top Hornets

Wade banked in the winning shot with 1.3 seconds remaining to
cap a remarkable comeback and give the Miami Heat a 101-99
victory over the New Orleans Hornets.

Wade's basket capped a 13-2 closing run for the Heat, who
overcame a 63-point first half by the Hornets, the
lowest-scoring team in the league.

The 2006 Finals MVP, Wade finished with 29 points, including 16
in the final period, on 12-of-25 shooting. He added nine
assists and five rebounds.

"Its wonderful to have a great offensive player to win it for
you at the end, but we would not have won the game with his shot
unless we had four 24-second shot-clock violations," Miami
coach Pat Riley said.

The Heat limited the Hornets to 36 second-half points and forced
two 24-shot violations in the last two minutes.

"(Our defense) was great down the stretch," Wade said. "That
was the kind of defense we played last year that really made us
champions. When it was time to shut down and lock up we did
that. We did a great job with team defense."

"It was a team who shows when it wants to play defense with
great intensity and awareness that they can," Riley said. "We
just don't. That's been our problem a good portion of the year.

Trailing by eight points with 5:40 left in the game, Wade
converted a three-point play, dished to Jason Kapono for a
3-pointer from the left corner, then drove through four
defenders for a lefthanded layup that tied the game at 97-97
with 1:41 left.

Miami's defense then forced consecutive 24-second violations
and, after Alonzo Mourning and James Posey split a pair from the
charity stripe, the Hornets' Chris Paul drove the lane for a
basket that tied the score at 99-99 with 18 seconds to play.

After a timeout, Miami cleared out for Wade, who drove to his
left inside the foul line, turned and banked in the winner from
about 10 feet over 6-8 Linton Johnson.

"It was about time. I haven't hit one all year," Wade said. "I
really didn't want to give them any time left, but I had to go
before they brought the double-team. It all came at the right
time."

A 3-pointer by the Hornets' Jannero Pargo at the buzzer did not
draw iron, giving New Orleans its ninth loss in 11 games.

"We played hard for about 40 or 42 minutes and they made a
strong push in the fourth quarter and D-Wade hit a big shot to
win the game," Paul said.

Udonis Haslem had 16 points and seven rebounds and Jason
Williams and Posey chipped in 15 for Miami (11-13), which has
won consecutive games for just the third time this season.

Wade's heroics spoiled outstanding games by Paul and Rasual
Butler. Paul just missed his sixth double-double in eight
December contests with 26 points, eight assists and six
rebounds. Butler scored 21 points and added eight rebounds.

"We did not do a good job down the stretch executing," Butler
said. "We are a better team than what we showed down the
stretch. There were too many shot-clock violations. You got to
get that shot up, make or miss.

"You have to find a way to get a good quality shot up. We
didn't do that. We didn't come up with the stops that we
needed. This one was on us."

Miami led by as many as nine points in the first quarter before
the Hornets scored 37 points in the second quarter to take a
63-54 lead into the half. The Hornets took their first lead of
the game, 52-49, after consecutive 3-pointers by Butler, who
scored 10 points during the period. Paul capped his 17-point
half with a shot from the arc at the buzzer.

"We were playing offensively to try to win the game throughout
the course of the whole game," Riley said. "It would have been
a loss if we didn't make some adjustments. One of the
adjustments we tried to make in the second half was to try to
take the ball out of (Chris Paul's) hands. We were fortunate to
be able to do that."

The Hornets committed just three turnovers in the opening half
while shooting 54 percent (26-of-49), but the Heat defense
picked it up after Riley called a timeout after Hilton
Armstrong's dunk gave the Hornets a 67-58 lead with 8:42 left in
the third.

The intensity picked up and Miami got as close as two before
Butler hit a pair of 3-pointers in a span of 2:45 that gave the
Hornets a 97-88 lead with six minutes left.